An excerpt from my script review for Ready or Not which will be available 09/02/19:
3.) Quality of Characters
The one thing this script had going for it were the character relationships, and how some of them had absolute and utter disgust for one another.
Was it flushed out three dimensional? No, but where there’s disdain there’s drama, and plot needs that to move the story forward.
Considering this was a horror comedy, let’s call them decent two dimensional characters who served their purposes well enough.
Alex with his family.
He doesn’t like them, and even though he’s not as clued in as Daniel, he still realizes they’re sick and demented, anything but normal.
(Again though, my argument here is how can he claim to love Grace if he knows they’re this fucked up yet he still brings her around?)
Daniel and Charity.
Another “less than perfect” marriage, and although it may be a bit of a cinematic cliché, their loathing of one another led to some interesting banter.
Becky and Grace.
Simply put, no one in the family is thrilled Alex is married, but none more so than Becky since Alex is her favorite child. This lends realistic motivation for her to follow through on the game of Hide and Seek at least.
Aunt Helene.
The lumbering bruiser of the family there to enforce the rules. She adds to the drama by forcefully wanting to see the task through to the end, and doing it properly, which conflicts with how her brother tries to “cheat” in the game later.
(Sadly not enough is done with that in the script, and Helene dismisses it with a simple line.)
Lastly…
Grace.
What I enjoyed about her character, and why she stood out from the others, was she was consistently put into situations where she had to sacrifice others to save herself.
This was good because you can sense there’s turmoil with these decisions as she’s considering her options, a characteristic that makes her more “real”.
My one critique here though is she willingly lets other “innocents” die, but when the time comes she goes to save Stevens?
That part felt backward, and it should have been her self-realization moment where she converts from flight to fight, because she understands that she needs to finish this both for herself and potential future victims.
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